I Don't Huddle With Dead Men
by Gottaluvit
Summary: Batman and Red Arrow are trapped in an ice tomb. Just silly stuff really, nothing deep and meaningful.


**This is just a silly fic written in response to a prompt on Lj (Roy harper/has to huddle with another hero to preserve body heat) Thought I'd share it here as well.**

**Title- I Don't Huddle With Dead Men  
Characters- Red Arrow and Batman  
DC owns them both  
Rated PG  
**

Red Arrow wriggles the toes he can't feel anymore, and sniffs..he can't feel his nose either, and he has ice on his eyebrows. He's wishing he still had his old costume, the one with the jacket, but it probably wouldn't have done him much good any way. He hugs himself tighter. "It's c..cold." he says, and as soon as the words come out of his mouth he wishes he _hadn't _said them, he has a penchant for stating the obvious. Of _course _it's cold, their trapped in what amounts to be a giant ice-box..stupid trans-dimensional alien magicians...or whatever those little purple freaks were. Stuff like this wouldn't have happened if he was still with the Titans, or the Outsiders..well, not as often as it seemed to happen with the League, anyway.

"You should let me take a look at that wound." Batman states. He's already inspected the icy alien tomb and deduced there is no escape from it until the others arrive, and they will arrive, the tracer he has turned on will guide them straight to them, unfortunately he calculates that will take around three hours, this dimension doesn't follow the same rules of time that their own does.

Roy frowns, not only because concern, or what could be interpreted as concern, coming from the Bat is disconcerting...and he's not going to let dark and scary think he's a wimp by worrying about what is little more than a deep scratch..but because there isn't even a tremor in the other heroes voice, just something else that seems to confirm to Roy that Bats isn't quite human somehow."N..Nah st..stopped b..bleeding. s'okay r..really."

"You need to come closer."

"W..What?" Red Arrow frowns, not sure what the older hero has in mind..and he's shivering so much he's not even sure he heard right.

"Come closer. We need to huddle together so..."

"When hell freezes over!" and, wow, _okay_, he lost his shiver there for a moment.

Batman stares at the younger hero, under his cowl he has one eyebrow raised quizzically, the wound isn't serious, but it there was some blood loss.. "You're on the verge of becoming dangerously hypothermic. The cold combined with the blood loss is.."

"Cuddle y..you? N..no way!"

"I said _huddle_, not cuddle."

"Same th..thing."

"No it's not."

"Y..Yes it is."

Batman bit back on the urge to sigh in exasperation. "To cuddle would imply closeness on a level other then physical survival, hud..."

"N..not g..getting ph..physical with _you_!" Red Arrow states indignantly, then shivers even harder at the imaging that floods his mind. "Nuh uh, _no _w..way!"

"Fine. Freeze to death, at least with the temperature so low you won't begin to decompose until after the other League members find us, there won't be a problem with odour.."

"I'm f..freezing and you're w..worrying about my d..dead ass stinking the p..place up?" the archer tries to sound affronted..but he just sounds like he's freezing, which he is, he can't feel his face anymore..or anything below his waist, which is..worrisome, considering the dangers frostbite poses to the smaller appendages and digits.

Batman gracefully sinks to the ground, his cape flows elegantly around him until he's just all cape with a head on top."My costume is thermostatically regulated. It warms up as required, simular to an electric blanket, only that is an over-simplification of..."

"W..warms up?" _Warms_..Red Arrow can't help but cling to the sound of that.

"Yes."

"_Really_?"

"Yes, and your face is starting to turn blue."

There is silence for a long moment..well except for the chattering of the archers teeth. "Huddle, n..not c..cuddle?" he finally asks.

"_Yes _Roy, _huddle_." and Batman _is _trying to be patient, Red Arrow being one of the younger members of the League and all. But the archer does make it difficult to keep his promise to Clark and Diana to at least _try _to be tolerant.

"'No hugging or anyth..thing r..right? no unnecessary t..touching?" There's a growl from the Bat, and it's enough to spur the archer into action. He suddenly finds himself under the other heroes cape..and it _is _warmer there. "Oh, h..hey it is warm under h..here." there's an uncomfortable period of silence that is broken with.." L..like your cologne, manly_, niiice_."

"Shut up Roy."

"Okay."

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

"How long do you think they'll take to find us?" Red Arrow asks, yawning as he leans against his pleasantly warm colleague. His voice is muffled, he has half his face buried under the cape, the heat from the costume is trapped under the heavy ,dark kevlar tent the cape forms, and he's warmed up now, snug and cosy, it makes him feel a little sleepy. He's grateful the Bat likes to showoff..that's the only reason Roy can think of to explain why the cape is so large. Unless of course the Bat totally planned for the fact that one day he might need it to help keep a team-mate alive, after being magically trapped in a cavernous ice tomb buy little purple, inter-dimensional alien magicians. He wouldn't put it past the Dark Knight to know something like that, the guy seemed to have a plan for every situation...but then, he's not quite human, Roy's sure of it.

"Soon I should imagine." They've been here two hours and thirty eight minutes. A green light on Batman's tracking device indicates the others are drawing closer..it shouldn't be long now.

"Thanks man..for, you know, saving my icy cold ass." Red Arrow mutters, he's only just realising that he wouldn't have made it home if he had been trapped with Dinah or Kendra, or someone without a nice warm suit and a great big cape to help keep him warm. "Ollie will be real grateful when I tell what you did, he loves Lian, but I don't think he's ready to be responsible for raising a five year old." and Roy's pretty sure that his baby girl is far more responsible then his 'father' is at times anyway.

Batman is quiet for a moment. "Harper, you mention this to anyone and you're a dead man." he finally growls.

Red Arrow twists a little, and peers out from under the cape at his saviors lens covered eyes."You don't kill." he says with certainty.

"There are exceptions to every rule." Batman grumbles back.

The archer grins, pulls the cape back over his head, and curls up closer to the warm body underneath. "I could get used to Bat cuddles." he say's.

The slightest amused smile twitches at the Dark Knights lips, but his voice remains stoic. "I don't _huddle _with dead men." he growls.

end


End file.
